THE SPITTLE SCREEN

The history of punk rock in film and on television has been spotty  at best  but this weekend Cinefamily climbs fearlessly into the pit with a mini-festival that documents a wide variety of portrayals of the punk subculture, from the laughably inaccurate to the surprisingly authentic. The theater joins forces with Fantagraphics, Alamo Drafthouse and Part Time Punks to mark the publication of Destroy All Movies!!!: The Complete Guide to Punks on Film, a comprehensive survey edited by Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly, with two days of screenings of cinematic atrocities juxtaposed with certifiable classics and seldom-seen rarities. The destruction begins Friday afternoon with clips from punk-related television episodes, including CPO Sharkey (where an atypically sensitive Don Rickles is perturbed by the Dickies' hyper-caffeinated satire), CHiPS and that notoriously muddle-headed examination by Jack Klugman on Quincy. Friday also spotlights the 1980 punk/new wave collision Times Square, the seedily exploitive film Class of 1984 and Lech Kowalski's grainy Brit-punk survey D.O.A. Saturday kicks off with a screening of the extended version of Urgh! A Music War and precious depictions of the early French (La Brune et Moi) and Northern Irish scenes (Shellshock Rock). Best of all, the night ends with two early-'80s films by local auteur Dave Markey, The Slog Movie (which captures the Lord of the Flies vibe of suburban SoCal hardcore bands like T.S.O.L., Sin 34 and the Circle Jerks) and Desperate Teenage Lovedolls (which stars members of Redd Kross, Black Flag and Sin 34 in a fictional and charmingly sarcastic low-budget punk parody of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls).
Sat., Nov. 20, 4:15 p.m.-midnight; Sun., Nov. 21, 2-10 p.m., 2010